My husband and I have went around and around on this issue. That's his biggest concern about having a kitchen in the basement. We don't plan on selling our home in the near future, but things do happen.

To me the main thing would be the triple sink. Ovens and fridges aren't permanent.

Has anyone sold a home that had a kitchen in the basement? How did perspective buyers feel about it?

You know some will like it some will not, it's like a pool. My last house, the people that bought the house, wanted the pool taken down, it was Feb., and cold so we couldn't, but we made arrangements for it to be done when it thawed.

When we built our kitchen in the basement, we made sure it could easily be dismantled. So when we sell, if the buyer doesn't want it, we can easily pull everything out and it will just be a finished basement.

We used free standing stainless steel islands instead of attached counter tops, like you said the appliances are easily removed, so that's not an issue. I think if you design it that way, it'll help when you do decide to sell.

The same here...we dont have a basement, but I converted a inlaw suite to a bakery area. The sink is the kind on legs (I think most of them are) and is in a cutout that can either be converted to a really nice wet bar. The closet has shelving, but can be easily removed to make into a big double closet. The oven is hard wired but is a freestanding oven so all we would need to do is put a plate over it. (someone can put like a hot tub or something in there! hahaha) The floor is tile, but can easily be covered with carpet. Voila, back into a bedroom.

My DH always says though if we sell the house, we are going to first approach home bakers and see if they would like to buy it first! hahaha!

I'm definitely doing the free standing sink. I kind of like the idea of having an extra kitchen. I have several large parties a year and a extra range and fridge sounds wonderful.

You'll love the extra kitchen, especially on the holidays. I have 40 plus people here on Christmas Eve and I use my downstairs ovens to do my prime rib and veggies, that way I can use my main kitchen for the appetizers. It's a God's send having that second oven and dishwasher. The best part is I can close the door down there and nobody sees the pans, so my main kitchen stays pretty clean for the party.

Good luck!

We are finishing our basement right now to include a separate licensed kitchen. Our basement is large and completely unfinished, so what we did as we were planning it was think how we could easily convert it back to what is normal in a basement (2nd family room, bathroom, bedroom). The walls that we are putting up will all remain the same if we ever do sell our house so that we can just take out the appliances, sinks, and cabinets and replace them with bathroom fixtures, throw in some doors for separation, carpet, and re-paint and no one will know there was ever a kitchen there. In my area, a 2nd kitchen is not nearly as valuable as a finished basement with extra living and bedroom space, so we've kept that in the back of our minds as we've planned this so it won't cause a huge problem should we ever have to convert. Good luck to you!

I'm also in the process of building a separate kitchen in my basement. Here the regulations are very strict in that if you move, or cease trading, the kitchen has to be removed - they come and check. (...I wonder what would happen if you could find another baker to sell to...?)

This is because there is a big problem here with people renting illegal basement suites, and the implication is that if you have another kitchen, bedroom and bathroom - as we will - we could quite easily rent that space. Just last week three young people were tragically killed in a fire in an illegal suite, hence the crackdown.

I agree with dkelley, it depends on the buyer. A pool adds value to some buyers .... loses value with other buyers.

Commercial grade stuff aside, I remember my gramma had an extra kitchen in her basement. She did all of her canning down there. We had all of our family get togethers there and this was 40-50 people. It was GREAT having a kitchen right there in the basement for everyone.

I can see parents with teenagers loving having the extra kitchen space so the kids could hang in the basement and make their own pizzas and clean up their own mess without going up and down into the main kitchen all the time.

I can see a couple with an adult child (and maybe a grandchild?) or a mother in law living with them and could set up separate living quarters for this other family member so everyone could have their own private space.

lhayes, your hubby sounds like mine ... he's never happy unless he explores all the NEGATIVE reasons about something! For every negative aspect he comes up with, I can come up with two positives!

In our case, I am the negative one. But my husband is the positive one x 10,000. It is quite frustrating. He is an engineer, so I mljnf I say I need a new stove because this one is to small, he will ionstantly say "lets get one of those laser heated one, and if it doesn't exist, it is very easy to make it, we can turn the guest bathroom into the heating...blah blah blah." I just wanted a normal kenmore stove. So in the end, we keep the old stove.

I would love to have my regular kitchen in my basement...we bought a 1970s era home about 5 yrs ago....it has a very very small galley type kitchen which I absolutely hate (and I don't have a front door - but that's another story!)....I was just thinking the other day - "I wonder if we could move the kitchen downstairs"

I don't have the "Tim" type husband - I'm the one that loves to create and build things - and my power tools are SO much better than his!!!!

We have had this same conversations also. "what will we do when it's time to move?"

That wil be 20-30 years from now. WHO KNOWS!!!
Depends on the economy, housing, banks, and so much more. The growing trend to be your own boss will play a part also. I like to think that I can sell it as is to someone that wants to have their own business. BUT, Ya just never know.

If we coudl tell the future life would be too esay.

In our case, the house is built on a hill so the basement is a walkout through the garage. We were talking to a contractor about building a new garage and turning part of the existing garage into my kitchen. He said that would be a good move as when we wanted to sell the house a new owner could either put a mother-in-law apartment down there or make a hobby room, or exercise room, etc. Now just to nget my husband to agree!!!